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They shut their eyes in frenzied dreams
Possessed by grief, they neither cried nor spoke
Life was shattered once again….
The Valley has always been so deceptive
The calmness around came from the smoke and dust
Of the mines and bullets and parts of limbs
That lay on the streets….
Red! The paths now were only painted Red!
And black adorned the veils of folks
As a mother watched silently….
She looked as if she knew
Her child would come back
And that no bullets could ever pierce him!
But she stood still and watched
Wailing and Waiting….
Her arms were frozen and eyes still, but wet;
They stretched far across the end of the road
Where the mourners’ procession began and moved along
Her arms too stretched to embrace her child…
Where’s he gone?
She knew, but believed not
She was still…
Five, ten, fifteen, folks gathered by her,
Some stirred her, some questioned…
She spoke in a voice no one heard
She made some signs and few caught!
Then she pointed to the right
And moved her eyes to the left
Shattered pieces of limbs lay across
In thick hot blood that kept flowing
Slowly from the body that was blown to pieces…
“He was playing marbles when they struck
And blew him off…
Five bullets and one grenade
Took his life off
His clothes were torn, his body flung
Into the air, and I, silently stood”,
Said the Mother kneeling down…
She rose again picking up her dead child,
From the bloody dead street into her arms;
His broken limbs she too gathered…
Quietly she joined the mourners who beat their breasts and
Cried along,
Leaving the smoke and pieces of bullets
And stains of blood behind…
To the graveyard!
“I’m not the one alone,
There are many mothers and wives
Many husbands and orphans,
Many sisters and brothers
Who’ll be laid to rest!
Some with broken heart, many with torn limbs
Many more with lost dreams…” she moaned.
Dust and strewn pieces of bullets and grenades
Red streets and hoax cry of
Leaders – have become a day’s routine
In the Valley of death – of lost paradise!
The Valley sleeps in silence, again!
Dangerous calmness! Dangerous silence!
The dark night of dangerous man-made evil spells
Has awaken… never to sleep again!
Year after year, days after days,
The deceiving trick of calmness
Has stained the streets with blood and bullets
And left marks of unending sadness
And grief!
When will the black robes and veils and
The mourner’s procession end
In this deceptive Valley of the lost paradise?
When will mothers stop turning into stone?
When will children again play marbles?
When will women fearlessly raise children?
When will men be merry again?
When will mines and bullets and grenades
Stop tearing the hearts?
When will silence and grief stop entering the doors of houses?
When will calmness be really calm?
When will men become men?
When will life be able to breathe…? |
